Unauthorized Background Cryptocurrency Miner (High CPU/GPU)

What is HIGH-CPU-CRYPTOMINER?

Unauthorized Background Cryptocurrency Miner (High CPU/GPU) is a high-severity malware/security issue. This diagnosis identifies background mining scripts or binaries running under spoofed system process names (e.g. lsass.exe, svchost.exe), causing high CPU/GPU resource utilization, thermal throttling, and severe system slowdown. See the troubleshooting steps below for the fix.

Common Causes

• Malicious utility bundles or drive-by scripts from unverified websites.
• Compromised web browser extensions running background script loops.

Step-by-Step Fix Guide

• 1
  Check Task Manager for unusually high-utilization processes executing from Temp or AppData directories.

  For lingering HIGH-CPU-CRYPTOMINER cases, "Check Task Manager for unusually high-utilization processes executing from Temp or AppData directories." is worth running through.

• 2
  Terminate suspicious processes using Taskkill or Resource Monitor.

  "Terminate suspicious processes using Taskkill or Resource Monitor." covers a less common but documented cause of HIGH-CPU-CRYPTOMINER.

• 3
  Download and execute a full clean scan using Microsoft Safety Scanner (MSERT).

  "Download and execute a full clean scan using Microsoft Safety Scanner (MSERT)." handles an edge case some users report with HIGH-CPU-CRYPTOMINER.

Commands & Diagnostics

Frequently Asked Questions